Ti West
147 connections found
View:
Connections, in both directions
With moralistic fringe mobs protesting Hollywood as a “Satanic factory” and a pornstar-turned-actress finding her identity amidst serial murders, it’s easy to feel the shadow of classics like Brian DePalma’s Body Double or Paul Schrader’s Hardcore.
Nods to sophisticated, sexy thrillers like Body Double (1984) or Dressed to Kill (1980) celebrate the Americana craze over amateur investigations, where protagonists spiral deeper and deeper into a conspiracy as if pulled in by an irresistible undertow.
In Maxxxine, the series moves away from the made-in-New Zealand Texas farmhouse with adjacent alligator lake of the first two pictures into a 1980s Hollywood which is at once scuzzy and vibrant. With perfect needle drops — Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s ‘Welcome To The Pleasuredome’, Kim Carnes’ ‘Bette Davis Eyes’ — and an array of authentic costumes and hairdos, this inhabits video-rental space with Abel Ferrara’s Fear City, Brian De Palma’s Body Double, William Friedkin’s To Live And Die In L.A. — not to mention a whole lot of non-auteurist exploitation pictures like the teenage-hooker classic Angel trilogy, the cult-of-killers cop flick Cobra and the extraordinary mad-movie-buff film Fade To Black.
…classics of the L.A. thriller subgenera like Body Double…
West echoed Brian De Palma's Body Double…
Playing out as a seedy giallo-esque 1980s thriller akin to Dressed to Kill (1980) or Body Double (1984)…
The chase sequence through the Universal Studios backlot takes our heroine to the hilltop house from Psycho (1960), famously associated with Norman Bates.
…and then winds up at the Bates Motel from Psycho, where she’s stalked by a sleazy private eye…
…including one in the Bates Motel set on the Universal studio lot…
…characters openly discuss the mansion looming above The Bates Motel from Psycho…
The implicitly gendered connection between horror protagonist and antagonist has been a glaring subtext ever since Psycho supplied the genre’s contemporary rubric.
Blending references from Vice Squad and classic Hollywood tales to Psycho and Giallo cinema…
But this time West's influences lean into the film-noir classics set in L.A., like Roman Polanski's iconic 1974 hit, Chinatown.
…at one point he’s styled to resemble CHINATOWN’s Jake Gittes…
It feels as if West suddenly wanted to make “Chinatown” (1974) into a horror film without the hardboiled detective.
Kevin Bacon is clearly relishing donning a Chinatown style getup and hamming it up with gravelly heavy accented vocals.
…be it its Chinatown-styled private eye character…
In one sequence, in particular, Bacon resembles Jack Nicholson in Chinatown as he pursues Maxine on the Universal backlot…
Boogie Nights (1997)
Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson
influenced X (2022), MaXXXine (2024)
Themes Visuals Characters
…straying further into dark comedy would likely invite unwanted Boogie Nights comparisons…
With echoes of everything from “The Shining” to “Psycho” to “Boogie Nights” to “Alligator” to “Hardcore” to infamous porn films such as “Andy Warhol’s Blue Movie” and “Debbie Does Dallas,” this is an homage but also a strikingly original and cheerfully grotesque work, filled with dark humor, relatively complex subtext and gung-ho, all-in performances from the talented ensemble cast.
He also evokes other major horrors — especially Psycho and Hooper’s Chain Saw follow-up, Death Trap , aka Eaten Alive — to build background dread while the main characters think they’re in a comical, down-home Boogie Nights .
We see several of the porn scenes being shot, and like the ones in “Boogie Nights” they’re realistic and true to the scruffy pre-video porn vibe.
The introduction of the eerie farm environment is lifted straight from “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” while the porn actors aspiring to be famous have the spirit of “Boogie Nights.”
While Mia Goth plays double duty as both Maxine and Howard’s wife Pearl, Brittany Snow’s performance wholly embraces this nostalgic take on what a porn actress from the late 1970s should feel like, reminiscent of Heather Graham in Boogie Nights.
…and movies like "The Shining" that appeal to audiences beyond the Real Sickos.
“X” is threaded with blithe references to key films — a car in a swamp like the one in “Psycho,” an ax through a door like the one that kicks off Jack Nicholson’s rampage in “The Shining,” an alligator borrowed from “Alligator” (ingeniously shot from high above in one jittery sequence), an ending that nods to the premise of Paul Schrader’s “Hardcore” (which came out in 1979).
While X points most overtly to the slasher classic The Texas Chain Saw Massacre – along with sly references to everything from The Shining to Paul Schrader’s Hardcore – what West offers up is more winking tribute than carbon copy.
“The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” is the most obvious touchstone here, but there are references throughout to films like “Psycho” and “The Shining.”
With echoes of everything from “The Shining” to “Psycho” to “Boogie Nights” to “Alligator” to “Hardcore” to infamous porn films such as “Andy Warhol’s Blue Movie” and “Debbie Does Dallas,” this is an homage but also a strikingly original and cheerfully grotesque work, filled with dark humor, relatively complex subtext and gung-ho, all-in performances from the talented ensemble cast.
There’s a fine line between a compelling homage and a tedious exercise in stylistic replication, and West achieves the former, even as he nods to Psycho (1960) and The Shining (1980).
Here he goes solo to pay homage to “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” – the 1974 original, not the slack update available now on Netflix.
Ti West has done something unique here – although the plot is similar to the entertainingly original and fun 2011 feature BreadCrumbs – yet the inspiration from classics like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is abundantly clear.
West also clearly has a fondness for The Texas Chain Saw Massacre , Tobe Hooper's revolutionary 1974 landmark, a film that X , set only five years later, explicitly echoes to an uncanny degree — and also revises.
“X” has a few nods to 1970s horror classics, such as 1974’s “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” and 1978’s “Halloween.”
West percolates these ideas under the surface of his latest and, thus far, greatest film, an inspired blend of Boogie Nights (1997) and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) that feels designed to trap its audience.
That said, if any of them had seen The Texas Chain Saw Massacre , which hit theaters in the fall of 1974, they’d be at least a little leery about piling into a van and heading to a remote farmhouse in an economically depressed swatch of rural Texas.
…or Paul Schrader’s Hardcore…
George C. Scott’s 1979 “Hardcore” is a major influence here as well.
…pays tribute to Cruising and Hardcore…
However, the mysterious atmosphere feels tonally indebted to crime thrillers such as Roman Polanski’s Chinatown and Paul Schrader’s Hardcore (1979).
…though with an ironised hint of Paul Schrader’s Hardcore from 1979…
West, a talented, ideas-driven film-maker, makes merry with contemporaneous tropes, yet falls well short of the substance or sleaze that defined Cruising, Hardcore, or the other films referenced throughout.
From the Scream sequels to the Halloween reboots, the perpetual retraumatization of the Final Girl has been done ad nauseam.
…his self-awareness in that position seems all too post-Serial Mom and Scream to maintain an ‘80s aura…
Thanks to the resurgence of “Scream” and “Halloween,” not to mention originals “Happy Death Day,” “Fear Street” and “Freaky,” the slasher genre has enjoyed a grand revival, but “X” feels like the apex mountain for this new era of young people getting their bodies mutilated in grotesque, often, brutal methods.
This teamed with the darkly humorous moments puts it in a similar vein to popular franchise Scream , with X shaping up to be another fun entry into the genre.
A much better “Texas Chainsaw” tribute than that wretched thing on Netflix last month and way smarter about slasher movies than the recent “Scream” sequel, writer-director Ti West’s X is a deliciously grisly entertainment existing on a level of craft well above most multiplex offerings, genre or otherwise.
Early successes for The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Halloween, A Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th inspired a barrage of films over the ’80s and early ’90s, including The Prowler, April Fool’s Day, and Sleepaway Camp, that ultimately culminated with the reimagining of the genre with 1996’s Scream.
Now, after nine years away from the genre, he dives back in with “X” a gory tribute to Austin filmmaker Tobe Hooper and while “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” is the first thing that comes to mind, it seems that West was inspired by Hooper’s follow-up 1976’s “Eaten Alive.”
He also evokes other major horrors — especially Psycho and Hooper’s Chain Saw follow-up, Death Trap , aka Eaten Alive — to build background dread while the main characters think they’re in a comical, down-home Boogie Nights .
Returning to feature length filmmaking for the first time since 2013’s The Sacrament, West delivers his best Tobe Hooper impression with this loving pastiche of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Eaten Alive.
A deep-fried scummy Texas tale that summons up all of the grimy goopy 70s Tobe Hooper feels—most obvious (times twenty) it’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre , but there’s also a good dose of Hooper’s ribald alligator epic Eaten Alive here for good measure—the first thing we hear is the buzzing of flies, and the next thing we see are the reddest, wettest guts splattered across the highway.
With echoes of everything from “The Shining” to “Psycho” to “Boogie Nights” to “Alligator” to “Hardcore” to infamous porn films such as “Andy Warhol’s Blue Movie” and “Debbie Does Dallas,” this is an homage but also a strikingly original and cheerfully grotesque work, filled with dark humor, relatively complex subtext and gung-ho, all-in performances from the talented ensemble cast.
Her partner, the much older and sleazy smooth-talker Wayne (Martin Henderson), convinces her to star in a pornographic film titled The Farmer’s Daughter ; the success of which needs to make half as much as Debbie Does Dallas (1978) to quash their financial woes.
RJ views the film as “art” while Wayne views it as a cash cow ala Debbie Does Dallas.
He’s our 40-something patriarch who sees the outsider success of recent pornos like Debbie Does Dallas as a way to escape the doldrums of everyday life.
And also a brief course in film history, with particular attention to “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” and shout-outs to “Psycho” and “Debbie Does Dallas.”
Nods to sophisticated, sexy thrillers like Body Double (1984) or Dressed to Kill (1980) celebrate the Americana craze over amateur investigations, where protagonists spiral deeper and deeper into a conspiracy as if pulled in by an irresistible undertow.
…a modern addition to the febrile, salacious, post-Dressed to Kill slashers of the Eighties…
Playing out as a seedy giallo-esque 1980s thriller akin to Dressed to Kill (1980) or Body Double (1984)…
…its copious De Palma shout-outs (its primary stylistic inspiration seems to be the filmmaker’s early-‘80s thrillers, like Body Double and Dressed to Kill)…
Its direct Giallo influences, like De Palma’s Dressed to Kill…
It joins the league of Rosemary’s Baby, The Exorcist and The Omen as one of the most diabolical entries in the modern horror library .
Imagine John Carpenter hired to make a drive-in knock-off of Rosemary’s Baby.
West matures considerably with what is basically a slow boil homage to the seventies that is obviously inspired by the classic “Rosemary’s Baby.”
Better than the film’s nuanced references to its forebears (the opening nods to Rosemary’s Baby with a track into Mary’s back positioned only partly inside a door frame), is its capricious script.
As the tale unfolds, a debt to not only '80s horror films, but also Rosemary's Baby, The Amityville Horror , and Hammer's gothic '70s classics also emerges: food (specifically, pizza) is a source of fetid disgust; murderous mysteries are discovered in the remote mansion's nooks and crannies; and Satanism is revealed as a malevolent force with which Samantha must ultimately reckon.
X (2022) is an homage to the early days of the modern slasher – Last House on the Left (1972), Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), and even Sleepaway Camp (1983), but with one crucial difference.
Early successes for The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Halloween, A Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th inspired a barrage of films over the ’80s and early ’90s, including The Prowler, April Fool’s Day, and Sleepaway Camp, that ultimately culminated with the reimagining of the genre with 1996’s Scream.
A love letter to “Friday the 13th,” “Sleepaway Camp,” and obviously “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” but also the adult film industry, “X” has assembled an incredible ensemble ranging from the versatile Mia Goth to 2022’s glorfield MVP and newly anointed scream queen Jenna Ortega (she had a couple showdowns with our pal Ghostface earlier this year in the excellent “Scream” revival) to help keep the story gelling.
…pays tribute to Cruising…
West, a talented, ideas-driven film-maker, makes merry with contemporaneous tropes, yet falls well short of the substance or sleaze that defined Cruising, Hardcore, or the other films referenced throughout.
Manifesting the atmospheric sleaze of psychosexual thrillers such as William Friedkin’s Cruising (1980) and Brian De Palma’s Body Double (1984)…
A menacing stranger clad in taut, rippling leather (shades of Cruising) sics his goon (Kevin Bacon) on her, sends her incriminating footage from the massacre on Pearl’s farm, and begins picking off her friends.
…to William Friedkin’s “Cruising,”…
Halloween (1978)
Directed by John Carpenter
influenced MaXXXine (2024), The House of the Devil (2009), X (2022)
Themes
Set roughly six years after the darkly funny yet also sharp X (these movies once had characters with depth), Maxine Minx is in Los Angeles, now making the leap from porn to horror, prepared to one day be a star just like Halloween did for a young and talented Jamie Lee Curtis.
From the Scream sequels to the Halloween reboots, the perpetual retraumatization of the Final Girl has been done ad nauseam.
With Janet Leigh paving the way for an actress like Jamie Lee Curtis to parlay her own career into a “respectable” one after starring in 1978’s Halloween.
“X” has a few nods to 1970s horror classics, such as 1974’s “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” and 1978’s “Halloween.”
Well, writer/director Ti West sets and primes his new slasher film between two classics of the genre, 1978’s “Halloween” and 1980’s “Friday the 13th”.
This is art house horror, heavily influenced by the scary movies made before "Halloween" changed the genre.
In addition to its many cultural signifiers (New Coke! John Parr’s theme song from “St. Elmo’s Fire”! Cocaine!), “MaXXXine” also homages many different directors and films of the period—the most glaringly obvious to me being Vernon Zimmerman’s “Fade to Black” (1980), Lucio Fulci’s “The New York Ripper” (1982), Gary Sherman’s “Vice Squad” (1982), Robert Vincent O’Neil’s “Angel” (1983), and Brian De Palma’s “Body Double” (1984).
…or, to a lesser extent Angel…
…non-auteurist exploitation pictures like the teenage-hooker classic Angel trilogy…
…or Robert Vincent O'Neil's "Angel."
Those gloves are likely an homage to Dario Argento’s “Deep Red,” along with numerous other references scattered throughout the film.
It’s West doing Once Upon a Time in Hollywood by way of Deep Red…
One watch of Argento's Deep Red (1975) will reveal just how much the giallo genre is a blueprint for West and Goth's horror tribute, with plot twists, striking colors, and a nonstop series of suspense.
…classics of the L.A. thriller subgenera like Body Double or Vice Squad…
…even if your average movie fan isn't familiar with Gary Sherman's "Vice Squad,"…
Blending references from Vice Squad and classic Hollywood tales to Psycho and Giallo cinema…
Gary Sherman’s “Vice Squad” (1982)…
West wears his influences on his sleeve, deliberately invoking the visual language of “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” (especially during the early, on-the-road scenes in their van), as well as the long zooms and creepy score that recall “Let’s Scare Jessica to Death.”
In the same way that Let’s Scare Jessica To Death embraces a melancholy end of the 1960s, X feels like Ti West looking back on the 1970s with similar sadness as he reflects back on the exploitation, horror, and pornographic films of the era.
Its refreshing lack of prudishness and its wholesale rejection of final girl tropes seem to frame it as a response to our current trend of constant artistic re-litigation of FUCKING EVERYTHING, wrapped in the clothes of Just Before Dawn or Let’s Scare Jessica to Death .
“X” is threaded with blithe references to key films — a car in a swamp like the one in “Psycho,” an ax through a door like the one that kicks off Jack Nicholson’s rampage in “The Shining,” an alligator borrowed from “Alligator” (ingeniously shot from high above in one jittery sequence), an ending that nods to the premise of Paul Schrader’s “Hardcore” (which came out in 1979).